LL-L 'Quoting' 2007.02.06 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=======================================================================

 L O W L A N D S - L * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226

 http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands.list at gmail.com

 Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/rules.php

 Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org - lowlands.list at gmail.com

 Commands ("signoff lowlands-l" etc.): listserv at listserv.net

 Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html

 Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html

 Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]

 Administration: lowlands.list at gmail.com or sassisch at yahoo.com


 You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
 To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
 text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
 sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.


 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
 S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)

=======================================================================

L O W L A N D S - L - 06 February 2007 - Volume 08

 ========================================================================

From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L 'Role Play' 2007.02.06 (04) [E]

I was wondering about role play (or is there a better linguistic term
for this phenomenon?) in Scots, English and British/American/Nicaraguan
Sign Languages, and the sort of cues that are used to show a change of
role in conversation.

By role play I mean where a speaker dispenses with the "he said, she
said" sort of speech tags and more or less becomes the people in their
discourse.

In Scots it seems to me that one of the main cues in switching to a
different speaker is a pause and an audible intake of breath (not
necessarily in that order). This seems to have some logic to it: it's as
if to say that someone in the story is taking a breath to speak, and
this is the way a change of speaker is indicated. Tone can also be used
to indicate different speakers, and I think this is particularly true
when we have two people being spoken about and one is asking questions
and the other answering them, so that the questioning and answering
tones are enough to distinguish the speakers.

I don't think I've ever really observed this sort of thing in English,
on the other hand. I think this may be because it takes a certain kind
of speaker to use this sort of feature much, possibly the sort of person
who's used to doing a lot of talking and listening but very little
reading and writing. I meet a lot more Scots speakers like that than
English speakers, but that's more about the sort of people I meet in
contrasting communities than anything about the English language itself.
It's true that the same sort of thing (stretches of dialogue without
speech tags) occurs in written conversations, eg in novels, but there's
no way of indicating the cues in writing, the reader has to judge which
character is speaking from such things as register and context. So I
think it may be that more literate speakers lose some of the dynamics of
the spoken language.

But do these cues actually differ between languages? And if so, how do
they differ between Lowlands languages in particular? I got to thinking
about this because a sign language interpreter who's proficient in both
British Sign Language and American Sign Language was saying that in BSL
there's much more role play, where as in ASL there's more indicating the
speaker with eyegaze. Then again in a programme about Nicaraguan Sign
Language, eye blinks were noted as an important role shift cue, though
body shifts as in BSL were also used.

I have a suspicion that a number of cues must be used in any given
language, it's just a question of how much of each, and what sort of
spoken register a person is accustomed to.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Quoting

Hi, Sandy!

That's an interesting subject, and I've been thinking about it a fair bit
lately.

I like commuting by bus, mostly for convenience, relaxation and to
people-watching. During my commute home there tend to be lots of young
people on the bus, from middle-school students to (post-)graduate students.
Many of them talk so loudly that you don't have to try to eavesdrop to hear
what they are saying, especially those on their cellphones of course (who
are in their own little worlds).

What I've been observing lately -- and Kevin (a.k.a. "Teach") and others
undoubtedly have observed this too -- is that role switching is an integral
part in the speech modes of that generation.

In the most commonly encountered styles, the phrase "... (is/go(es)/went)
like ..." or "... is/go(es)/went (like)" signals "open quote," i.e. a role
switch, and there tends to be a change in tone and voice production in
quoting other people as well as put-on facial expressions, or even gestures
-- role playing, in other words. For example ...

A: So like what did he say then?
B: He goes like "What do you mean?", and I [[surprised expression]] ... like
"Huh?"
A: Yeah, and when he called me he went like "What's she on about?"
B: Each time I bring it up he goes [[big, fake innocent eyes, lowered
voice]] ... "Oh, Oy dohn' know."

At times, only a facial expression and/or a gesture follows the quotation
marker.  In other words, you hear a pause if you don't look at the speaker.

Sometimes the statement it's open-ended; e.g.,

And I go like "...."

... and there's no physical acting. (It lends itself to phone conversations,
of course, but isn't limited to it.)  This appears to be used when the quote
is to be expected; e.g.,

A: She went like "Will you hand in your paper tomorrow?"
B: What?! She crazy or what?
A: Yeah, I go "..."

I assume this is a marriage of older "he goes, "..." etc. (for past tense)
and more recent overuse of "like" as a pause marker.  In some conversations
I hear this being used completely regularly, i.e. grammaticalized.  And
added to this is more elaborate acting.

Is this at least similar to what you mean, Sandy?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070206/130fcf8d/attachment.htm>